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en-caMon, 21 Jan 2019 15:05:42 ESTFormer ambassadors and academics urge China’s president to release Canadian menhttps://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/01/21/former-ambassadors-and-academics-urge-chinas-president-to-release-canadian-men.html
4dcad9c8-5d88-4c29-bfdc-a5f21a9313ceTonda MacCharles - Ottawa BureauMon, 21 Jan 2019 14:11:20 EST<img src="https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/politics/federal/2019/01/21/former-ambassadors-and-academics-urge-chinas-president-to-release-canadian-men/chinese_president_xi_jinping.jpg"/><br/><p>OTTAWA&#8212;More than 100 former ambassadors and prominent academics specializing in China and Asian affairs are appealing directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping for the release of two Canadian men who the Trudeau government says are being &#8220;arbitrarily&#8221; held by Chinese state security forces.</p><p>In an open letter published Monday, a copy of which was sent to the Star, 26 former ambassadors to China and 115 scholars from around the world say they are &#8220;deeply concerned&#8221; about the detentions and say it sends a chilling message to all who want to build bridges with China.</p><p>The letter comes as Beijing moved to soften its tone a week after its ambassador to Canada warned the Trudeau government it would face &#8220;repercussions&#8221; if it banned Huawei, the Chinese corporate giant that wants to play a key role in developing Canada&#8217;s 5G networks, the next generation of high-speed wireless networks.</p><p>Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesperson, told reporters Monday that Ambassador Lu Shaye &#8220;did not mean that China intends to interfere in the decision-making of the Canadian government.&#8221;</p><p>She said Huawei &#8220;is a leading supplier in the 5G technology, so losses are inevitable if Huawei is not chosen as a co-operation partner,&#8221; later adding &#8220;We have been reasoning with the Canadian side, not threatening it.&#8221;</p><p>Nevertheless, the Chinese spokeswoman talked tough and accused Canada of &#8220;irresponsible&#8221; remarks and &#8220;microphone diplomacy&#8221; in its efforts to rally international allies to protest the men&#8217;s detention. </p><p>She disputed Canada&#8217;s claims that the leaders of Germany and Singapore have publicly supported Canada&#8217;s position, saying neither made public comments.</p><p>Canada&#8217;s allies have made varied statements of support.</p><p>But the letter published Monday by former diplomats, including five past Canadian envoys, and many others shows more than 140 Western experts on China speaking with one voice. Hua dismissed it Monday, according to a transcript posted on the foreign ministry website.</p><p>&#8220;I wonder who these western scholars and officials are and how much do they know about the real situation regarding the cases of the two Canadian citizens,&#8221; she said, adding foreign citizens are welcome in China. &#8220;As long as they abide by Chinese laws and regulations, there is nothing to worry about.&#8221;</p><p>The former diplomats and academics make no explicit reference to China&#8217;s unspecified allegations against former Global Affairs Canada diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, but the letter implicitly refutes the vague <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/12/13/china-levels-national-security-accusations-against-two-detained-canadians.html">allegations</a>.</p><p>Chinese state security officials arrested the two separately after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, wanted by the U.S. for allegedly lying to skirt American sanctions on Iran. </p><p>The Chinese government is rebuffing Canada&#8217;s calls for the men&#8217;s release. Beijing says the Canadians are being held on suspicion of &#8220;activities endangering China&#8217;s national security&#8221; but they have not been charged.</p><p>&#8220;Many of us know Michael Kovrig through his work as a diplomat in Beijing and as the senior expert for northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group, an organization whose mission is to &#8216;build a more peaceful world&#8217;,&#8221; the letter reads. </p><p>&#8220;In both roles, Kovrig regularly and openly met with Chinese officials, researchers, and scholars to better understand China&#8217;s positions on a range of important international issues.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Michael Spavor has devoted his time to the task of building relationships between the Democratic People&#8217;s Republic of Korea and China, Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere.&#8221;</p><p>Spavor had co-ordinated sporting and cultural trips into North Korea through his China-based business and made headlines when he worked as a fixer for former NBA superstar Dennis Rodham&#8217;s trip to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.</p><p><strong>Read more:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/01/17/china-hits-back-at-freelands-criticism-of-detention-of-canadians.html">China&#8217;s ambassador accuses Canada of &#8216;backstabbing&#8217; in arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou</a></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/01/16/chinese-police-prevent-canadian-woman-from-returning-home-on-connecting-flight-through-beijing.html">Chinese police prevent Canadian woman from returning home on connecting flight through Beijing</a></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/01/07/trudeau-enlists-trump-to-seek-release-of-canadians-detained-by-china.html">Trudeau enlists Trump to seek release of Canadians detained by China</a></p><p>The one-page appeal, in English and Chinese, says that kind of on-the-ground engagement is the foundation of serious research and diplomacy. </p><p>It says their detentions &#8220;send a message that this kind of constructive work is unwelcome and even risky in China.&#8221;</p><p>It cautions that people who share &#8220;Kovrig and Spavor&#8217;s enthusiasm for building genuine, productive, and lasting relationships must now be more cautious about traveling and working in China and engaging our Chinese counterparts.&#8221; That leads to less dialogue and greater distrust &#8220;and undermine(s) efforts to manage disagreements and identify common ground.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Both China and the rest of the world will be worse off as a result,&#8221; the signatories wrote.</p><p>Among the group are five former ambassadors to China from Canada &#8212; Fred, Bild, Joseph Caron, David Mulroney, Guy Saint-Jacques and Rob Wright. It is also signed by former envoys from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Sweden, and Mexico, two former U.S. deputy assistant secretaries of state, and former foreign ministers from the U.K. and Australia. </p><p>The letter &#8220;respectfully&#8221; asks the Chinese president for the &#8220;immediate&#8221; release of the two Canadian citizens &#8220;so that they may be reunited with their families.&#8221;</p><p>One Canadian signatory, Joseph Caron, ambassador to China from 2001 to 2005, said he signed the letter &#8220;because it was the moral thing to do,&#8221; but declined further comment.</p><p>David Mulroney, who was Ottawa&#8217;s envoy from 2009-2012, said the letter is signed by a list of people &#8220;who have spent decades learning about China and trying to understand and interpret it. China has an interest in being better understood.&#8221;</p><p>He said it should remind people that &#8220;this is more than a Canada-China dispute.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Many people, from many places, are worried about the extent to which China is closing itself off, and punishing those who have struggled to understand it and explain it to others.</p><p>&#8220;China typically succeeds by isolating countries and punishing them, while others look on in silence. Sweden has just experienced this, and now we are, too. By broadening the discussion about what&#8217;s happening, we make it harder for China to bully smaller states.&#8221;</p><p>Last week, Beijing&#8217;s ambassador in Ottawa Lu Shaye signalled the Chinese government has no intention of intervening in what is now an investigation led by state security forces. He said that as the investigation &#8220;deepens and advances&#8221; the charges would be made &#8220;clear&#8221; and &#8220;specific.&#8221;</p><p>Lu insisted China is taking &#8220;compulsory measures&#8221; under law against the men. He contrasted that with Canada&#8217;s <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2018/12/06/trudeau-says-he-had-nothing-to-do-with-the-arrest-of-chinese-executive-in-vancouver.html">detention</a> of Meng which he called &#8220;groundless&#8221; because she has broken no Canadian law. Meng is out on bail, restricted to remaining in Vancouver where she lives at one of her two mansions pending her extradition hearing. China wants her set free immediately. </p><p>On Sunday, newly appointed federal Justice Minister David Lametti said officials in his department, not him, will decide the next step, which is whether to issue the &#8220;authority to proceed&#8221; to put the U.S. case against Meng before a Canadian judge. </p><p>Under a bilateral treaty, the U.S. has until Jan. 30 to produce its documents or &#8220;record&#8221; of the case to Canada&#8217;s justice department&#8217;s international assistance group, which then has 30 days to review the package. </p><p>If all is in order, the justice department officials would grant the authority to proceed and its lawyers would argue on behalf of the U.S. before a Canadian judge that the U.S. has produced documents that meet the legal threshold to have Meng extradited to face fraud charges. A Canadian court judge will decide if indeed the U.S. has produced enough evidence that would have been sufficient to send Meng to trial if the conduct had occurred here, but doesn&#8217;t pronounce on guilt or innocence. Then it&#8217;s up to the justice minister to decide whether to surrender Meng to be extradited, taking account of <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/12/13/canada-caught-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place-in-the-case-of-huaweis-meng-wanzhou.html">legal and political </a>factors.</p><p>&#8220;I will only intervene after a court decision to extradite with respect to the execution of that decision,&#8221; said Lametti.</p><p>&#8220;So in terms of the process I will stay away from the process in order to not be tainted if I do have to make a decision one way or the other,&#8221; Lametti told reporters Sunday. </p><p>The ex-diplomats&#8217; and academics&#8217; letter comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues his efforts to speak to other national leaders about Canada&#8217;s concerns in the affair. </p><p><span class="endnote_contrib">Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics. Follow her on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/tondamacc">@tondamacc</a></span></p>Former ambassadors and academics urge China’s president to release Canadian menTwenty-six former ambassadors to China and 115 scholars from around the world say they are “deeply concerned” about the detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavorand want China to release them. They sent their concerns in a letter to China’s President Xi Jinping. Andrey RudakovBloombergTonda MacCharles Ottawa BureauFord warns that Ottawa’s carbon pricing plan could cause a recessionhttps://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/01/21/ford-warns-that-ottawas-carbon-pricing-plan-could-cause-a-recession.html
3cdcf2e6-22de-4d91-8392-a65e8b290ae7Rob Ferguson - Queen's Park BureauMon, 21 Jan 2019 12:31:00 EST<img src="https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/politics/provincial/2019/01/21/ford-warns-that-ottawas-carbon-pricing-plan-could-cause-a-recession/doug_ford.jpg"/><br/><p>Premier Doug Ford is warning of a recession if the federal government forces a carbon tax on Ontario.</p><p>In a luncheon speech to the Economic Club of Canada, the premier said Monday the tax would be a &#8220;disaster&#8221; because &#8220;there are already warning signs on the horizon.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;The risk of a carbon tax recession is very, very real,&#8221; he added. </p><p>Environment Minister Rod Phillips defended Ford&#8217;s use of the word recession, saying it is &#8220;entirely appropriate.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;There are negative economic consequences when you start over-taxing Ontarians,&#8221; he told reporters.</p><p>A recession is typically described as two consecutive quarters of a shrinking economy.</p><p>Under the federal plan, the average Ontario household will pay $244 more annually on gasoline, natural gas and home heating oil, but will receive $300 back in rebates for a net gain of $56 a year, bankrolled by big industrial polluters.</p><p>Neither Ford nor Phillips specified how the federal plan would trigger a recession.</p><p>Canada&#8217;s Ecofiscal Commission, an independent economics think tank, said in a statement that Ford&#8217;s warning &#8220;is not substantiated by credible evidence.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Our research&#8230;as well as a wide body of literature, shows that economic impacts from carbon pricing and revenue recycling will be very modest.&#8221;</p><p>Greenpeace said the Ontario government&#8217;s plan to fight climate change, introduced in November, is not sufficient to meet the challenges facing the environment.</p><p>&#8220;Ignoring climate change won&#8217;t make it go away or make Ontario immune to the more extreme storms, flooding, smog, droughts and wildfires that can only be avoided by a rapid transition to renewable energy,&#8221; Greenpeace spokesman Keith Stewart said in a statement.</p><p>&#8220;We need a government committed to supporting much-needed jobs building electric vehicles, installing solar panels and other climate solutions rather than trying to boost sales of gasoline.&#8221;</p><p><span class="endnote_contrib">Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/robferguson1">@robferguson1</a></span></p>Ford warns that Ottawa’s carbon pricing plan could cause a recessionOntario Premier Doug Ford said the “risk of a carbon tax recession is very real” Nathan DenetteTHE CANADIAN PRESSRob Ferguson Queen's Park BureauCommuters continue to face delays as extreme cold weather impacts transit service across Torontohttps://www.thestar.com/news/starweather/2019/01/21/extreme-cold-warning-for-toronto-starts-off-chilly-snowy-week.html
5a36fda6-1a9a-47a3-a639-487f81acfccbPremila D’Sa - Staff Reporter,and Ilya Banares - Staff ReporterMon, 21 Jan 2019 05:49:44 EST<img src="https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/starweather/2019/01/21/extreme-cold-warning-for-toronto-starts-off-chilly-snowy-week/afwcoldweather04.jpg"/><br/><p>Passengers are bracing for more delays on the ride home after the bitterly cold weather was blamed for the longer-than-usual commute Monday morning on the TTC and GO Transit.</p><p>Service was disrupted on the TTC subway lines because of the extreme cold in the GTA. Buses were added to the 501 Queen streetcar service in the morning, while the 506 Carlton was entirely replaced by buses. </p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t anticipate there being the same issues this afternoon but we will monitor,&#8221; Stuart Green, the TTC media relations and issues management specialist, said in an email.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re deploying additional track and signal crews throughout the day and into tomorrow morning to check and de-ice any switches still experiencing issues. These extra steps we&#8217;re taking should mitigate only those weather-related issues we experienced this morning.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Read more: </strong></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/01/20/provincial-police-respond-to-over-350-snow-related-crashes-on-gta-roads.html">OPP respond to more than 350 snow-related crashes on GTA roads</a></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/starweather/2019/01/19/extreme-cold-warning-special-weather-statement-in-effect-for-toronto-as-icy-conditions-cause-200-collisions-across-gta.html">Extreme cold warning, special weather statement hit Toronto over weekend</a></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/calgary/2019/01/18/edmonton-and-calgary-lose-their-chill-this-weekend-as-mild-winter-weather-returns.html">Edmonton and Calgary lose their chill this weekend as mild winter weather returns</a></p><p>Most GO Trains going into Union Station in the morning ran 15-to-20 minutes late. </p><p>&#8220;This morning overall, just from a system-wide perspective, we found there weren&#8217;t any extreme service disruptions for our trains and buses,&#8221; Metrolinx spokesperson Scott Money said. &#8220;There were a variety of weather-related issues that did cause service to be slower than normal.&#8221;</p><p>According to Money, most of the delays on the GO trains were caused by icy snow infiltrating the doors and the entire mechanism, resulting in doors either unable to close or unable to open.</p><p>Money added that for the afternoon rush hour, &#8220;we&#8217;ll have extra crews on hand again and throughout the day now they&#8217;re working to make sure all the switches are working properly, de-icing all the doors to minimize any delays for the afternoon.&#8221; </p><p>Coming out of an icy spell this past weekend, Torontonians face more frigid temperatures with Environment Canada issuing an extreme cold warning on the first day of the week.</p><p>While the agency forecasted a temperature of -12 C during the day, a wind chill made it feel like -30 C to -38 C in the morning.</p><p>Several school boards cancelled bus service in light of the weather conditions, but schools remain open. Bus service for the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Durham Region, York Catholic and York Region District, and Simcoe County school boards was cancelled. Peel District School Board buses were running. </p><p>According to TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird, the school bus cancellations were over concerns about the engines.</p><p>&#8220;Based on past experience, we know that a number of buses will not be able to start their engines,&#8221; Bird said. &#8220;What we don't want is students waiting for a bus that would be extremely late or may never come. So that's why the decision was made to cancel buses today.&#8221;</p><p>Due to the inclement weather, Toronto schools have also had issues with heat, Bird said.</p><p>&#8220;We have had a number of reports of issues with heat and water particularly, so if there was a water issue, the boilers are not necessarily working and then that impacts heat,&#8221; Bird told the Star. &#8220;We have teams spread out across the city fixing those now.&#8221;</p><p>Torontonians are advised to cover up, wrap around those scarfs and uncuff those pants, as Environment Canada says there&#8217;s a risk of frostbite given the conditions. Winds will gust from 20 km/h up to 40 km/h and frostbite can develop &#8220;within minutes&#8221; when skin is exposed, they said.</p><p>The weather agency is also calling for the temperature to sit at -20 C, with wind chill expected to fall between -25 C to -30 C tonight.</p><p>The agency is also warning that if it&#8217;s too cold for you, it might be too cold for your pet as well.</p><p>Things will get considerably warmer after Monday. On Tuesday, Environment Canada is calling for -4 C during the day with a 30 per cent chance of flurries. The temperature will stay the same into the night, but there will be flurries and periods of snow. It might still feel really cold though &#8212; with the wind chill it&#8217;s forecasted to feel like -21 C in the morning and -9 C in the afternoon.</p><p>Wednesday will bring rain and temperatures that will feel tropical in comparison. Environment Canada is forecasting a high of 3 C with a chance of showers. But the warmer weather will be short-lived, with temperatures dropping back below freezing to -5 C in the night. There&#8217;s also a 30 per cent chance of flurries so prepare for a wet, even slushy day.</p><p>For the rest of the week, plan on leaving your house with considerable layers and a good pair of boots. Thursday will see a high of -2 C with a 40 per cent chance of flurries. There&#8217;ll be some sunnier periods throughout the day as well. In the night, the weather will drop down to -8 C with some more snow expected.</p><p>Not much will change on Friday &#8212; Environment Canada is calling for a high of -8 C during the day with a 60 per cent chance of flurries. The night will bring more cold and more snow with the temperature dropping to a frosty -13 C.</p><p><span class="endnote_contrib">Premila D&#8217;Sa is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star&#8217;s radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/premila_dsa">@premila_dsa</a></span></p><p><span class="endnote_contrib">Ilya Ba&#241;ares is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/ilyaoverseas">@ilyaoverseas</a></span></p>Commuters continue to face delays as extreme cold weather impacts transit service across TorontoThe GTA is in for more frigid temperatures with Environment Canada issuing an extreme cold warning on the first day of the week.Andrew Francis WallaceToronto StarCommuters continue to face delays as extreme cold weather impacts transit service across TorontoCompared to Monday’s temperatures, Wednesday will bring rain and above zero temperatures that will feel tropical in comparisonAndrew Francis WallaceToronto StarPremila D’Sa Staff Reporterand Ilya Banares Staff ReporterStudents call Tories’ funding changes ‘frustrating,’ ‘terrifying’ and ‘devastating’https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/01/20/students-call-tories-funding-changes-frustrating-terrifying-and-devastating.html
77368e80-7a89-47c9-b05a-91e17bb19d9eMay Warren - Staff ReporterSun, 20 Jan 2019 16:58:47 EST<img src="https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2019/01/20/students-call-tories-funding-changes-frustrating-terrifying-and-devastating/_1_students_composite.jpg"/><br/><p>Amy Mather doesn&#8217;t know what she&#8217;ll do now that the province has ended her free tuition.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s terrifying, to be honest,&#8221; said the 21-year-old, who&#8217;s studying child and youth care. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been at Ryerson for two years now on free tuition and it&#8217;s still very difficult.&#8221;</p><p>Mather is one of thousands of students hit last week by the provincial government&#8217;s announcement of a sweeping package of reforms to the Ontario Student Assistance Program and tuition. It includes a 10 per cent cut to tuition fees across the board, but it also means the end of both free tuition for lower-income students and of the six-month grace period on interest being charged on loans after finishing a degree. Those are changes that many students say will make paying for their education much more difficult or impossible.</p><p>Mather says it might cost her the chance to finish her degree. The whole reason she decided to go back to school, after a year off, was the free tuition program, introduced by the Liberal government in 2016. </p><p>All her tuition was covered under the grant and she also qualified for an OSAP loan that covers living expenses, such as the $1,300 in rent she pays for a basement apartment with her partner in Ajax.</p><p>She already works three jobs and doesn&#8217;t get help for school from her parents. </p><p><strong>Read more:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/01/18/the-student-the-parent-the-graduate-the-people-hit-by-tories-osap-shakeup-weigh-in.html">The student, the parent, the graduate: the people hit by Tories&#8217; OSAP shakeup weigh in</a></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/01/17/free-tuition-program-is-gone-tuition-reduced-and-student-fees-are-no-longer-mandatory-ford-government-announces.html">Free-tuition program is gone, tuition reduced and student fees are no longer mandatory, Ford government announces</a></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2019/01/18/ontarios-buck-a-beer-playbook-is-coming-to-a-campus-near-you-with-tuition-discounts-too-good-to-be-true.html">Opinion | Martin Regg Cohn: Ontario&#8217;s buck-a-beer playbook is coming to a campus near you &#8212; with tuition discounts too good to be true</a></p><p>Mather has an idea of what it will be like without the free tuition because she started her post-secondary education at Carleton University in 2015, before it kicked in. She incurred $18,000 in debt from that first year alone.</p><p>&#8220;And then I took a year off because I couldn&#8217;t afford it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I can&#8217;t even describe the amount of struggling.&#8221;</p><p>Merrilee Fullerton, the minister of training, colleges and universities, told reporters Thursday the 10 per cent tuition cut will translate to &#8220;significant savings for students and their families,&#8221; and that the goal is to focus resources on the students with the greatest need.</p><p>She said OSAP costs are out of control and noted the <a href="http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/news/18_newsreleases/2018news_3.10.pdf">auditor general</a> projected in December they could balloon to over $2 billion annually by 2020-21, an increase of 50 per cent from four years earlier.</p><p>About 300 students protested in front of the legislature on Friday to protest the end to free tuition for low-income students.</p><p>Stephanie Bertolo, vice-president of education at McMaster Students Union and a recent arts and science grad, said the decrease on the &#8220;sticker price of tuition&#8221; is a relief for students on the surface but &#8220;we are disheartened to see that it is changing to a formula we don&#8217;t think is necessarily going to help as many students.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re seeing a portion of the grants turned back into loans.&#8221;</p><p>Abdullah Mushtaq, director of advocacy for the College Student Alliance, called the cuts a &#8220;devastating&#8221; move.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going to have the biggest impact on low- and middle-income students,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That couple of thousand dollars is still coming out of their pockets.&#8221;</p><p>For Donald Giancoulas, the changes will mean $800 in savings on the cost of his studies overall but also a huge change in his grants-to-loans ratio, which is now about 70/30. He&#8217;ll also face the immediate start of interest being charged on his loans.</p><p>&#8220;It will end up costing me more money,&#8221; he said of the reforms.</p><p>He&#8217;s getting what he believes the government considers a &#8220;secondary&#8221; or post-graduate degree, in accounting from Sheridan College. For these kinds of degrees, loans will be a minimum of half the aid provided, another one of the new changes announced by the province last week.</p><p>It&#8217;s a change Giancoulas estimates will cost him about $1,500 on an $8,000-a-year program. &#8220;Any time you go into something where you have a plan and then someone changes the plan, it&#8217;s frustrating,&#8221; he said, adding he&#8217;s committed to finishing his education.</p><p>&#8220;But that&#8217;s going to come with a little bit more hard work and a little more effort.&#8221;</p><p><span class="endnote_contrib"><em>With files from Rob Ferguson and Kristin Rushowy</em></span></p><p><strong>What do the changes mean for you? The Star has you covered:</strong></p><p><strong>10 per cent tuition cut:</strong></p><p>Across the board, the province is cutting tuition for domestic students by 10 per cent. For a student attending an Ontario college, this will add up to an average savings of $340 depending on the program, Post-secondary Minister Merrilee Fullerton told reporters. </p><p><strong>Free tuition:</strong></p><p>This has been scrapped by the province. Brought in by the previous Liberal government, it allowed qualifying students to have 100 per cent of their tuition covered by grants that they didn&#8217;t have to pay back, and still qualify for OSAP to cover living expenses. Now the province is converting more of the grants to loans. No one will have their tuition covered entirely by grants. </p><p><strong>Individual impact:</strong></p><p>It depends on your exact situation. The province said in its news release Thursday that under the new plan 82 per cent of grants will go to students with a family income of less than $50,000, up from 76 per cent under the previous government. However, those students will still have to pay for some of their tuition out of pocket through loans.</p><p>According to examples on the government&#8217;s <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/osap-ontario-student-assistance-program">OSAP.ca calculator</a>, if your parents make a total of $50,000 or less a year, and you&#8217;re doing a university undergraduate degree, the ratio would break down as a $7,100 grant and $7,600 loan. If they make $70,000 under the same scenario then it&#8217;s a $6,100 grant and $8,600 loan. </p><p><strong>Second degrees:</strong></p><p>If you&#8217;re doing another degree, like a postgrad college certificate, graduate degree, or law school, your loan-to-grant ratio will be a minimum of 50 per cent loan, the government says in its news release. </p><p><strong>Mature students:</strong></p><p>The definition of a mature student, which the government calls an independent student, will change from someone who has been out of high school for four years to someone who&#8217;s been out of school for six years. </p><p>This means that you&#8217;re tied to your parents&#8217; income longer, and your OSAP grants and loans calculation will be connected to your parents&#8217; income for six years after you&#8217;re out of high school, rather than four.</p><p><strong>The OSAP interest grace period:</strong></p><p>It&#8217;s gone. Under the old Liberal government, there was a six-month grace period after finishing your degree before you had to start paying back your loans. The idea was this gave you time to get on your feet and find a job. You still have the grace period on making payments but now interest will accrue during it.</p>Students call Tories’ funding changes ‘frustrating,’ ‘terrifying’ and ‘devastating’University of Toronto students, from top left, clockwise, Linwen Huang, Panagiotis Athanasopoulos, Phillippe Tippins, Janina Taberna and Syed Hassan, all shared their thoughts on the Ontario government’s recent changes to tuition and OSAP. The move comes with a 10 per cent cut to tuition fees across the board, but it also means the end of both free tuition for lower-income students and of the six-month grace period on interest being charged on loans after finishing a degreeRené JohnstonToronto Star May Warren Staff ReporterToronto's Sony Centre is getting a new namehttps://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2019/01/21/torontos-sony-centre-will-be-renamed-meridian-hall-as-of-september.html
cc903a6b-53ae-4617-a40a-ac12a68f33aeRaju Mudhar - Staff ReporterMon, 21 Jan 2019 10:35:48 EST<img src="https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/entertainment/2019/01/21/torontos-sony-centre-will-be-renamed-meridian-hall-as-of-september/rl_sonycentre_02.jpg"/><br/><p>Civic Theatres Toronto has secured a $30.75-million strategic partnership and naming rights agreement with Meridian Credit Union, which will see the Sony Centre become Meridian Hall, while the Toronto Centre for the Arts become Meridian Arts Centre.</p><p>The new naming rights take effect in September. But the theatres are not the only ones changing names.</p><p>Civic Theatres Toronto (which consists of three city-owned facilities: the Toronto Centre for the Arts, St. Lawrence Centre and the Sony Centre) is also rebranding as TO Live, a name that better represents the organization and reflects the next phase of the organization&#8217;s plans to grow, according to Clyde Wagner, president and CEO. </p><p>TO Live is also announcing the creation of the TO Live Foundation, which will help it fundraise and work with the community.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s our time to say we have a new name. We have a new brand and we have a new partner who is going to help us go forward,&#8221; Wagner said in an interview. &#8220;And also for companies that are 50 years old, for the first time we have a foundation so people can help preserve these assets in a way that they should be. Toronto is a first-class city and the cultural assets that they own should also be kept up in a first-class way and that takes everyone to be part of it.&#8221;</p><p>Civic Theatres Toronto was created in 2015 to find efficiencies and ways to improve the underperforming theatres. </p><p>The announcement was made on Monday morning at an event at the Sony Centre with Mayor John Tory. Both Wagner and Wade Stayzer, Meridian&#8217;s senior vice-president, say the deal is more than just putting the name on the building, as both companies plan to find ways to work together. </p><p>&#8220;If you look at the communities we do business, it&#8217;s a key tenet of ours to contribute and give back, and help to build stronger communities. So if you look across from Ottawa to Vaughan to St. Catharines to Barrie, there are what I would call significant community assets to bear the Meridian name and, even more than that, signify the very strong partnerships between our people on the ground and our organizations,&#8221; said Stayzer. </p><p>&#8220;When this was presented to us, this just fit very well with what we want to do, as well as what Clyde and his team are trying to do. At the end of the day to have our name on two iconic buildings in Toronto, it was a significant opportunity for us.&#8221; </p><p>The deal will see the money split over the next 15 years and will help TO Live take the next steps toward preserving the city-owned cultural assets under it&#8217;s stewardship. </p><p>Wagner was recruited from Luminato to take on that responsibility and says that while a lot work has been done behind the scenes, this is the next step. </p><p><strong>Read more:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2015/06/24/report-pushes-merger-for-three-city-owned-theatres-knelman.html">Opinion | Martin Knelman: Report pushes merger for three city-owned theatres</a></p><p>&#8220;This is a moment in time on a journey, it&#8217;s not the end, but it&#8217;s not the beginning, but it is time to celebrate a little. When we started three years ago, these were three separate entities, three separate businesses, the Sony Centre, the St. Lawrence Centre and the Toronto Centre for the Arts,&#8221; he says.</p><p>&#8220;In the past two years, we&#8217;ve been doing a lot of work under the hood, amalgamating these companies, bringing the staffs together, creating one institution, with one system of booking, of marketing &#8230; which is a way of leveraging efficiency, to do better for the city and taxpayer.&#8221;</p><p>The Sony Centre has picked up some concerts with the current Massey Hall renovation underway. All together, in 2018, there were 613 performances with over 493,000 attendance at all the theatres last year. In 2019, they are anticipating more than 500,000 attendees and 774 performances. Wagner also points to the 2019 budget growing to $28.1 million &#8212; an increase of almost $4 million over 2018 &#8212; while the organization&#8217;s subsidy remains at $5.3 million, which is down $600,000 from 2017.</p><p>Some critics &#8212; most notably Rob and Doug Ford when they were city councillors &#8212; have asked why Toronto should own and subsidize theatres, and others have complained that the theatres lack a coherent strategy. </p><p>&#8220;When Rob Ford and Doug had the question about what are we doing with these theatres, why don&#8217;t we sell them, I actually agreed with them. When the theatres were failing, why should the city be in this business, because with the investment they were making, they could not see the return on their investment for the money that they were spending,&#8221; Wagner says. &#8220;We can show the return on investment and culture is important; it does things that nothing else does and it is our mandate is to reflect the city on the stage.&#8221;</p><p>Wagner also says there is much more to do. In particular, he points to the creation of the TO Live Foundation, which will for the first time allow for the creation of a fundraising organization and potentially other groups that will help sustain the theatres.</p><p>&#8220;The library has a foundation, the zoo has a foundation, &#8220; he says. &#8220;So this could help us create things we don&#8217;t have, like a young patron&#8217;s circle or a fundraising board.&#8221;</p>Toronto's Sony Centre is getting a new nameSee ya, Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. As of September, the facility will be known as Meridian Hall.Richard LautensToronto StarRaju Mudhar Staff Reporter